Pluto And Back

Five - Nova

I was on a strangers ship, heading to a place I had never been before. Fair to say I'm a little scared. What if he's a criminal? What if he's a bad person? No, he doesn't seem it. But that's what serial killers do. He wouldn't be a voyager if he was a serial killer. That wouldn't be allowed. They would've found out by now and stopped him. I'll be fine. No. Yes. I don't know. It seems like I can trust him I mean, he has a cat. A cute one as well. Anyone with a cat is instantly a good person.

He was really tall. 6'4 or 6'5 maybe. Older than me by two or three at least. He had brown hair cut shorter at the sides with longer floppy hair on top. He was quite muscular but then again, he's a voyager. He was wearing cargo trousers and a workout vest that showed off his muscular arms.

"So, do you have family in Cobo" he asked me.
"No. I've actually never been there before."
"Then why do you want to go there?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe a fresh start would be good for me."
"What about your life back home in Endus? Family? Friends?"
"Don't really have much of that. I've finished all my academics, there's nothing there for me now." That was true. I felt that Endus had nothing my more to offer me. I didn't have a job and my days were spent pouring over books. Maybe Cobo could give me the excitement I craved and a new start. I had no clue what i was going to do when we got there, but I'll figure that out. I always do.

"Well, I don't have any family. It's just me and my cat, Atlas. Oh and of course Pluto, she takes us everywhere we need to go for voyages and adventures." He patted the side of the ship as if thanking her for all she does. I felt sorry for him, being all alone up here. Having no family is tough, I know.
"Atlas seems a friendly cat. I meant him on my way up here."
"Yeah, he's in his favourite spot at the minute, under my chair in the cockpit." The kettle flicked up and stopped boiling. Kettles on ships take ages to boil as most of the ships power is used to fuel the engine, of course. "Would you like a tea? I picked up some cool flavoured ones from the port earlier?" I loved tea, it was the best thing in the world, sometimes I say tea is my home.

"Oh, yes please. I have 2 sugars. I need the energy." He gets up and goes to the other side of the room and starts making the tea.

"I know what you mean. My last voyage has taken a toll on me and I'm exhausted. I was actually headed for a quick nap before I stumbled across you" The way he said this made me laugh. "Whats funny?" He said, looking at me curiously. For some reason i couldn't stop laughing. "What?" He said, smiling now.

"Nothing! I just found what you said funny, I don't know, the word 'stumbled' made me laugh." He smiled at me and then looked back down to finish making the teas.

I sit down at the table and pick up a map. It looked like a map of one of the Capitals. Cobo, maybe. It definitely wasn't Endus. "Is this your home? Cobo?"

"Yeah, well kinda. The Marshals and Generals are trying to build a new sorta city connected to Cobo. I don't really know what it's for but these are the plans for it. For my voyage I had to go and scavenge some materials for it. They're in the storage room." Cobo was already quite a big Capital. It was bigger than Endus but around the same size as Zion. I don't get why Cobo needed to be bigger. It's not really my business anyway. The plans looked a little strange. Almost like a prison. I have heard on the news that criminals are at an all time high recently and maybe they need a bigger prison.

"How long have you been a voyager for?" I asked.

"Almost three years. I started as soon as i left academics when i was 18."

"So, you're 21?"

"Yeah, I usually get away with a lot older if i want to though. Lemme guess, 19?"

"How did you guess that?"

"I don't know" he replied, "For some reason i was drawn to that number i guess."

"Do you like being a voyager?" I ask.
"Yeah," he says, coming to sit down next to me with two cups of  hot tea. "Yeah I love it. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. Like I'm doing something good to help space. I don't know. I guess it proves that I'm not useless and that I'm worth something to society. Plus me and Atlas love exporting the galaxy and the places I get to see are really cool. I never want to stop doing it" I'd give anything to be a voyager like him and spend my days travelling in my own ship.

"It sounds amazing. You do help people. Without voyagers we wouldn't know half of what we do about different life forms. We would have barely any resources. You're not useless."
"Thanks," he said shyly. "I do try." I took a sip from my tea, I liked it hot. I looked up at Arrow. His green eyes looked back at me. I felt like I'd known him for years, I felt safe. I wanted to stay in that moment forever.